This invention relates to method and apparatus for inputting text for word processing and other communications. More specifically, the invention relates to a technique whereby text and related entries, normally too numerous to be legibly presented together on a conventional keyboard device, are input by the input device magnifying and highlighting a selection of appropriate characters forming words, and/or phrases enabling the user to choose the desired character (representing a word), word, or phrase, or any other unit of meaning in a language.
This invention relates to the field of input techniques for text representing independent units of meaningxe2x80x94represented by characters, words, and phrasesxe2x80x94in a computing environment. In particular, this invention presents a xe2x80x9cvirtual keyboardxe2x80x9d which allows a user to input characters, words and phrases in an efficient and timely manner. For illustration, this application will speak to the input of language characters, with the knowledge that such characters form words and/or phrases. However, the present invention can be applied to input any character (or set of characters) desired, not just language characters, including numbers, symbols, and the like.
For foreign language character input, a problem with inputting the characters in a computer is the key set necessary for accurate and reliable input. Individuals using the English language utilize well-known key sets to input characters, such as the standard QWERTY keyboard. However, individuals of non-English languages encounter problems when inputting characters using standard keyboard devices. The extent of the problem varies depending on the basis of the language. For the Romance languages, such as Spanish, French, and German, little effort is required to solve the problem as those languages utilize the English alphabet as the basis for their language. Special letters using diacritical marks (such as the umlaut, e.g.: xc3xc) can be input through a keystroke combination to place the diacritical mark over the appropriate letter.
However, for character languages, such as Chinese, Korean, and Japanese; the problem exists due to the inability of standard English-alphabet characters to create the special characters and the number of characters in a specific language. Thus, utilizing an alphabet-alphabet keyboard (such as the standard QWERTY keyboard), it is impossible to create the characters in a meaningful manner. For example, the Chinese characters cannot be readily re-created by modifying the standard keyboard input. Even more importantly, the sheer number of characters makes foreign language keyboards inappropriate for computer input. For example, in the Hanzi Chinese character alphabet, there are anywhere from 3000 to 6000 common characters utilized for communication. Obviously, a keyboard utilizing the standard method of input of one letter/character per keystroke would be impractical.
Prior art solutions to these problems are unsatisfactory for an efficient method of accurate and comprehensive input of foreign language characters. One approach to the problem has been to allow a pen-based input of foreign language characters. Utilizing this approach, a user xe2x80x9cselectsxe2x80x9d a character through the computer xe2x80x9cpenxe2x80x9d and a display set of potential words is displayed. The user then selects the appropriate word, or inputs more characters to refine the display set to the desired word. This technique is inappropriate for many reasons; a user may have to input several characters to arrive at the desired word. That is, the character set returned by the pen-based input is necessarily limited so that the user is not presented with the full choice of appropriate words or phrases. The user must continue inputting characters to have the computer-generated (and statistically sampled) character set return the appropriate word. (At its basic level, merely using a pen-based system to select individual characters to form a word or phrase is inappropriate due to the time required to input long word strings.) In addition, the user must go through several selection steps to arrive at the appropriate word or phrase. Other prior art solutions similar to that described above but using traditional input methods (e.g., a keyboard) are likewise inappropriate for the needs of efficient, reliable, and comprehensive character input.
Other prior art techniques focus on xe2x80x9cchordingxe2x80x9d selection: selecting two or more input parameters, such as keys on a keyboard, simultaneously to obtain a desired character. Still other prior art techniques focus on multiple stroke methods to obtain the desired character: many modern limited keypads, such as those used for cellular telephones, allow character input by multiple selection of certain keys (e.g., pressing the xe2x80x9c3xe2x80x9d key twice to select the character xe2x80x9cExe2x80x9d). These techniques are inappropriate for the same reasons discussed above: time and efficiency of entered characters. By forming words or phrases on a character-by-character basis, a tremendous amount of time is required, rendering anything but short messages nearly impossible to achieve. In addition to the time required for character input, the system is also inefficient in that it does not recognize words or phrases associated with the initial character such that manual input through a multiple stroke selection technique is required to form the desired words and phrases.
Still other prior art techniques use a phonetic or phoneme system for multiple selection character input. In these techniques the individual characters are not presented to the user for selectionxe2x80x94instead the user is given a choice of various phonetic symbols organized in a pre-defined arrangement. The user selects the English language phonetic equivalent of the desired word or phrase, and the input device returns possible foreign language characters that potentially match the English language phonetics. This technique is inappropriate in that it relies on the input of the phonetic equivalent of the desired word; a user must form and then select the appropriate phonetic word or word stem. In addition, the same phonetic input can identify more than one word or phrase, requiring the user to select from a list of the appropriate phrase with the input pronunciation.
Finally, prior art techniques for inputting foreign character based words or phrases use the laborious method of forming those characters using individual keys. In these techniques the actual character itself is formed by selecting multiple graphic symbols. For example, particular Chinese language characters are formed by inputting the graphic symbols xe2x80x9c xe2x80x9d,xe2x80x9c-xe2x80x9d,xe2x80x9c_xe2x80x9d,xe2x80x9c""xe2x80x9d, and the like. Obviously, a number of keystrokes must be input to form even one character, let alone words and phrases.
Thus, in view of the foregoing state of the art, it is an object of the present invention to provide an input device and method that enables the efficient, reliable, and comprehensive method to forming foreign words or phrases in a computing system.
According to the present invention, there is provided a text input method encompassing the following: a display means capable of displaying a virtual keyboard having individual characters that comprise the appropriate character set used to form words and phrases; a partition area set within the display means for delineating the appropriate character keyset; an input method for selecting both the individual characters and, in an efficient manner, the desired word or phrase; and a selection method for selecting the appropriate word or phrase.
Conceptually, the invention provides a method whereby any number of characters and/or words, and/or phrases, can be assembled on a single keyboard input device. The text input method of the present invention operates as follows. First the user is provided an appropriate area of the display means that contains the keyboardxe2x80x94the entire set of characters from the universe to be input. Using that display area, the user selects one part of that display area; as the user manipulates the input device over the portion of the display area, in one embodiment, words appear for selection by the user. The words which appear are magnified according to a user-defined resolution, in a predetermined area, so as to assist the user to locate the appropriate character. Similarly, the user may fluidly change the location of the predetermined area in which the magnified characters appear by scrolling in any direction (i.e., complete 360 degree flexibility) with techniques that either accelerate or decelerate the movement through the magnified characters in the predetermined area of the keyboard.
As an example, if the text input device of the present invention represented the English language, in one embodiment an entire dictionary of English words would be provided on the keyboard, arranged in a user-defined manner, with words starting with the letter xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d in the top left area of the keyboard and the words beginning with the letter xe2x80x9cZxe2x80x9d at the bottom right. In this embodiment, when first viewed on the display area the words themselves will be far too small to be legible. However, as the user moved a text input device, such as a computer mouse pointer, over the keyboard, the words located on the computer screen at the position of the computer mouse pointer would be magnified in a predetermined area, such as an insert box. For example, suppose the user desires to enter the word xe2x80x9censignxe2x80x9d on the text input device of the present invention. The user operates the computer mouse pointer in the keyboard area of the display screen to locate the xe2x80x9cExe2x80x9d section of the keyboard, where words beginning with the letter xe2x80x9cExe2x80x9d would be presented to the user in a viewable manner by magnification. The user may, for example, land on words beginning with xe2x80x9cedxe2x80x9d. The user can then manipulate the computer mouse pointer (by using smaller movements) toward the xe2x80x9cenxe2x80x9d section on the way toward the desired word (xe2x80x9censignxe2x80x9d). Until the target word is magnified in the insert box, the user will further manipulate the computer mouse pointer passing over the magnified words beginning with the letters xe2x80x9censxe2x80x9d, and so on, until the appropriate word (xe2x80x9censignxe2x80x9d) is one of the magnified words in the insert box, at which point the user may freeze the insert box in place and operate a computer selection technique (such as xe2x80x9cright-clickingxe2x80x9d on a computer mouse button) to select the word xe2x80x9censign.xe2x80x9d Note that multiple words may appear magnified at any point during the selection process, so that, for example, at one point the words xe2x80x9censhroud,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9censiform,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9censign,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9censilage,xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9censilexe2x80x9d would appear, from which the user could easily select the desired word.
According to the present invention, there is also provided a text input method encompassing, in addition to the above described invention, the ability to utilize a dictionary, thesaurus, or other language reference tool to assist the user in the input of characters, words or phrases in the appropriate character based language.
Thus, the present invention enables the efficient, reliable, and comprehensive method of forming foreign words and phrases for use in a computing system. Note, of course, that the computing environment can work in stand-alone applications and computers, in networked applications, and in wireless environments. The present invention allows a user to easily and quickly select the appropriate word or phrase by targeting an approximate location for the word or phrase based on its position relative to either the user-defined organization scheme of the entire keyboard, or subdivided portions of the keyboard designating broad categories of words (such as the first letter of a word for a dictionary that is organized alphabetically). Then, a set of words or phrases is magnified to provide guideposts to find, and ultimately select the target word. The size of the insert box relative to the size of the keyboard is user defined, as is the size of the font size. The present invention also works with multiple input systems and is not limited to any one system. That is, the present invention allows an input method that includes use of a computer mouse, computer pen, touch-screen keyboard/keypad, voice-recognition, or optical based systems.